Tudjman's complicity in ethnic cleansing verified

Chris Burford cburford at gn.apc.org
Sat Sep 23 10:19:10 PDT 2000


Although this comes from the Institute of War and Peace Reporting,

http://www.iwpr.net/index.pl5?home_index.html

with the excellent Guardian journalist Martin Woollacott on its panel of Trustees, but also with sponsorship from the British Foreign Office, it is detailed confirmation of the dirty activities of one of the West's allies, Tudjman of Croatia, at the height of the Bosnian war.

Chris Burford

London

Bosnian Trade Off

Secret tape recordings provide indisputable evidence of the former Croatian

President's obsession with the division of Bosnia.

By Drago Hedl from Osijek (BCR No. 169, 5-Sep-00)

The subject of rumour and speculation for years, the late Croatian President

Franjo Tudjman's alleged designs on Bosnia have been confirmed in

transcripts of secret tape recordings he made at the height of the conflict.

In a recorded conversation with two senior Croatian officials on November 28,

1993, the former Zagreb leader speaks of trading Bosnian Croat controlled

areas along the Sava River for towns in the west of the republic.

"If we get borders Novi Travnik, Busovaca, Bihac and if we cleanse Baranja, we

can give up majority of areas around Sava," Tudjman is heard to tell Mate

Boban, the then president of Croatian republic Herzeg-Bosnia, and Gojko

Susak, the Croatian minister of defence at the time.

Although not mentioned explicitly in the tapes, the trade off with Serb leaders

is widely believed to have been part of his plan to create Greater Croatia - that

is a Croatian state including much of the western half of Bosnia.

The revelations come several months after Tudjman's successor to the

presidency Stipe Mesic claimed to have discovered a telephone hotline used

by his predecessor to conduct secret negotiations with Yugoslav President

Slobodan Milosevic over control of former Yugoslav territory.

The new transcript comes from a huge archive of taped Tudjman conversations

made available to the public by Mesic.

Tudjman obsessively recorded confidential discussions with his colleagues

because he felt they would prove to be invaluable when historians came to

writing about his role in Croatia's struggle for independence.

Hundreds of tapes have been found in the former president's office, exposing

wartime plots, intrigues and corruption. Officials have spent months sifting

through them, separating those dealing with criminal activities from ones

documenting ordinary political business.

The latest tapes to be published provide indisputable proof of both Tudjman's

obsession with the division of Bosnia and the lengths to which he was prepared

to go to achieve his goal.

Tudjman clearly talks about 'cleansing' the Serb-held Baranja region of

Croatia - a euphemistic term for the brutal removal of ethnic groups - one of

the most shocking tactics employed by the warring factions in the Yugoslav

conflict.

The tape also reveals Tudjman's cynicism. Under pressure from the

international community to end his involvement in Bosnia, the Croatian leader

decided to sacrifice Boban to appease his detractors.

Tudjman and Susak are heard trying to persuade Boban to step down. They

reproach him for not launching an investigation into the destruction of the 'Old

Bridge' in Mostar and dozens of civilian murders in the town.

The criticism, however, stemmed not from revulsion over the crimes but an

effort to deceive the international community by presenting themselves as

committed to the preservation of human rights.

Tudjman was concerned the civilian deaths might prompt the international

community to make Mostar a protectorate.

Asked why he hadn't charged anybody with the murders, Boban insists that

there wasn't sufficient evidence to do so. Tudjman is heard to retort, "You may

not be able to bring charges, but politics is a game. Provide the names of 60

people - and we'll say they are under investigation for violating human rights."

In another revelation, Boban talks about a meeting of the Croatian Democratic

Union, HDZ, on February 28, 1992 (from the records it is not clear whether it

was HDZ from Bosnia-Herzegovina or Croatia) at which a decision was made to

annex some parts of Bosnia to Croatia.

Boban mentions the move in passing and the matter is not mentioned again.

But Tudjman's references to trading territory at the end of his conversation with

Boban and Susak leaves little doubt that annexation was high on his agenda.

War mongering, ethnic cleansing, secret deals over territory, the toleration and

encouragement of war crimes and a deceitful attitude towards the international

community were central elements of Tudjman's policies.

People have long speculated over his wartime objectives, but they've had little

hard evidence on which to base their assessments. The publication of his

secretly recorded tapes reveal not only his ultimate goal, a Greater Croatia, but

the brutal means with which he was prepared to achieve it.

Drago Hedl is a regular IWPR correspondent



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